Ask the contractor.

Here's a siding to really set your sights on

October 19, 2001|By Tim Carter, Tribune Media Services.

Q. Energy costs are quite unstable right now. Add to that the rising cost of just about everything else, and I need to save money. I love the look of painted wood siding but don't want to break out a paintbrush every five to seven years.

Is there a vinyl siding product that really looks like wood and offers superior energy efficiency?

A. Anyone who thinks energy prices are going to go down and stay down in the future needs to wake up.

Much of the energy we use to heat and cool our homes comes from natural resources that can't be replenished as fast as we use them. As the population grows and the resources dwindle, energy prices will most certainly continue to rise.

It's very wise for you to think about reducing energy costs with each and every building material you choose.

Vinyl siding was first introduced in 1957, and believe it or not, the product has not changed radically until this year. One of vinyl siding's claims to fame has always been how maintenance-free it is. Once you install it, it rarely requires care. There have, however, been a number of problems with vinyl siding.

For starters, there's its appearance. Over the years, manufacturers have tried all sorts of things to make vinyl siding look like wood. Countless different profile sizes, wood-grained embossing and even multicolored extruded siding have all fallen short of the mark.

But a bigger problem vinyl siding manufacturers have faced has been the product's lack of rigidity. If you touch typical vinyl siding on a home, it simply is not solid.

What's more, the exterior walls on most wood frame houses are not perfectly flat. Thin vinyl siding and even thicker fiber cement and some wood sidings have a tendency to follow every bump and dip.

Add to this problem the fact that most of the vinyl siding products that resemble wood siding have a curl in each lap. This unsightly curl is a dead giveaway that the siding is not wood.

All of these problems and more have been solved by a revolutionary no-maintenance vinyl siding that has just hit the marketplace. This product has a solid-foam core that allows the siding to lie incredibly flat on a bumpy exterior wall. This siding has an R-value of 4.0. The R-value is a measurement of resistance to heat loss or heat gain. The higher the value, the more energy you save. Traditional vinyl siding, most wood sidings and fiber cement sidings typically have an R-value of less than 1.0. This new siding is so energy-efficient that it carries the prestigious Energy Star label. You will search long and hard for other siding products that bear this label.

The foam core that is laminated to the back of the siding interlocks as it is installed. This creates a solid-foam barrier around all of the exterior walls of your home. This is important because the wall studs and the top and bottom wall plates used to construct the exterior walls create breaks in the wall-insulation systems.

The foam core also slows air infiltration. Outside noise travels through air gaps in the sidewalls of your home. This new siding is an excellent sound-deadening material.

Traditional vinyl siding has typically been vulnerable to impact damage from hail, baseballs, golf balls, etc. The foam core in this new siding increases impact resistance by 300 percent. This feature is very important as your home ages. It is not easy to find replacement siding that matches perfectly 10 to 15 years after it has been installed. If you use this new foam-core siding, you should not have to worry about this maintenance issue.

Be sure to ask about the trim pieces that are needed to install the siding. They are very attractive. The curb appeal of a home covered with this new siding is unparalleled.

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Write to Tim Carter, c/o The Chicago Tribune, P.O. Box 36352, Cincinnati, OH 45236-0352. Questions will be answered only in the column. For a list of solid-core siding products, added features and other tips on installing vinyl siding, please send $3 to the above address. Ask for Builder Bulletin No. 378. Want to talk to Tim? Call him from 9 to 11 a.m. Central on Saturdays toll-free at 888-737-1450. Visit www.askthebuilder.com.